Providing any required timber is sourced responsibly, the single most compelling argument in favor of building skyscrapers is the fact that it represents an opportunity to create a sustainable building on a truly grand scale (Image: SOM)

A report produced by SOM cites the potential to compete with reinforced concrete and steel at heights of up to 30 stories, while reducing the carbon footprint by 60 to 75 percent (Image: SOM)

The reThink Wood initiative says that if combustion of the wooden structure does occur, its heavy mass ensures that the wood chars at a slow and predictable rate (Image: SOM)

SOM and MGA both agree that the solution to constructing tall buildings from wood rests on the use of "Mass Timber" (Image: SOM)

Various architectural firms are beginning to wake up to the promise of wooden tall buildings, and Sweden-based firm Berg C.F. Møller has proposed a 34-story wooden skyscraper for HSB Stockholm's architectural competition (Image: Berg C.F. Møller)

Skyscrapers dominate the skylines of our major cities, offering more urban density and greater flexibility than smaller buildings. However, concrete- and steel-based tall structures require huge amounts of energy for their construction, which comes at a significant environmental cost. This can be mitigated by incorporating technologies such as solar power, passive cooling systems and efficient lighting into the design, but what if we could go even further and build skyscrapers using sustainable materials? Herein lies the impetus behind recent research into the efficacy of wooden skyscrapers.